The apex socio-cultural organisation of Igbo youths, the Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) has said the refusal to allow the President of Nigeria emerge from the South-East region for 56 years running has resurrected the clamour for Biafra.
OYC national president, Comrade Igboayaka Igboayaka, made the call in a statement made available to journalists in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Thursday.
The Council lamented that Biafra agitation was incited by the protracted injustice and marginalisation against Ndigbo, adding that the emergence of an Igbo president will address the concerns including tribalism.
He said “This prolonged marginalisation, injustice and economic strangulation against Ndigbo have formed the opinion of over 80 million Igbo people between the age of 15 to 57 years that Nigeria is not their country. Therefore, they seek secession for the actualisation state of Biafra. A Nigerian President of South-East ought to be a patriotic call for all right-thinking members of the Nigerian society, to pave the way for a new Nigeria, where tribalism will be buried with the resurrection of National patriotism instead of ethnic patriotism,” Igboayaka said.
According to the OYC president, a Nigerian president of Southeast extraction in 2023, is the perfect solution to the political differences and errors allegedly perpetrated by General Gowon and General Ojukwu from 1967 to 1970.
He argued that the clamour for Biafra has increased since 1998 with Chief Ralph Uwazurike-led Movement For Actualization Of Sovereign Of Biafra.
According to him, the Biafra agitation has taken a new dimension since the emergence of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, currently detained “in the custody of the Department of the State Services, (DSS) on the directives of the All Progressives Congress administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.”